Blissful Meditation Experience

Blissful Meditation Experience

Date Posted:
November 2011

A student wrote to check if his experience of bliss was correct. Rinpoche sent the following reply.

My very dear Tim,
Thank you very much for your kind letter, I am very sorry for the many eons it took to reply.

My advice is that even though this may not be the exact, correct experience, we can use this experience when we practice tantra, generation stage. We can use this experience to generate bliss. For example, when we meditate, we are able to see emptiness and experience infinite bliss—skies of bliss, non-dual with emptiness—so then we generate ourselves as the deity. The mandala, oneself, everything, is the experience of bliss.

The offerings, the deity, the mandala—everything is in the nature of non-dual bliss, as much as we can generate. Then also there is the dharmakaya example, the great bliss mind seeing emptiness. That experience we can enlarge; that bliss, non-dual with emptiness. So think this is the future result time, the future deity, so it is something unbelievable, skies of great bliss. Meditate what we can.

Samsara and nirvana are in reality in that experience of great bliss, non-dual emptiness. Every small piece of the mandala is in that nature. Unbelievable!

Also then we can use this experience for the completion stage, but for now continue to develop and stabilize guru devotion.

This is the causative phenomenon to realize emptiness, that’s what we need to realize emptiness, so however it exists, appearing here, but totally empty from its own side, appearing as totally non-existent. Not that it is non-existent, but appearing, otherwise that is contradictory, so it is merely imputed by the mind; it is a subtle dependent arising. If we come to this conclusion, it’s correct; if we do not, then it’s not correct.

Develop your mind on the path by following the lam-rim outlines, then later the generation stage and then completion stage.

You asked me to be your guru—you already attended my teachings, so this has already happened. Anyway, I accept, ok. But I am not qualified.

With much love and prayers...